Death to Gray

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

I have been sick this week but still productive. Don't you love it when you have a deadline that means you can't just wallow in your sickness?

So our local Bark For Life is being postponed until mid - late June (yay!). Which means I have much much more time to get vendors and people registered. I can turn this into the huge event that it deserves rather than just throwing it together. This is a huge weight off of my shoulders. I feel lighter already.

Our Cancer Survivor's Social is Friday evening and I am so excited that we have gotten 5 large item donations, 4 will become the prizes for the Bingo games we play and 1 will be raffled off to a survivor! Yay, our Swag Bags will have some neat little things like certificates for free frozen yogurt and Relay gear. This is coming together very well. And I can be a big enough woman to admit that I was stressing over this more than a little!

Tomorrow a friend and her sweet boys will be coming to San Diego. Her youngest has a Histiocytosis and is undergoing chemo at our amazing Rady Children's Hospital. He is only 23 months old, and I beg you to head over and "like" his Facebook page Praying for little Olly. This little guy is such a trooper and deserves all the prayers, thoughts, and positive vibes the world can send him right now. I can't wait to see them briefly tomorrow evening. His sunny demeanor gives me hope that one day we will find a cure for cancer.

On a positive note, I am crocheting myself a stunning scarf to wear with a new black dress that I ordered. I dyed some gorgeous wool today for a friend, you can go "like" her Facebook page also. AJ's Handmade Creations sure knows how to take basic yarn and turn it into precious photography props and wearable items for tiny humans. I am in awe of her talent and I can't wait to see what a masterpiece she creates with her skills and my yarn! Stay tuned for some photos!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Yesterday I picked up the Purple Potty from my friend Corey's house and placed it in front of the Sheriff's Department like he requested. The rules are if you donate enough you can pick where it goes next (and believe me, he paid even more to insure against me putting it on his lawn again). Within an hour of placing it in front of the Sheriff's, the potty was suspiciously missing.

But because of my busy day I wasn't able to make it back over there to chat with them for another 6 hours. I was mildly freaking out mentally about my potty. This is not an easy project to accomplish. It requires sanding porcelain with a low grit sand paper, and it takes a lot of elbow grease to really scratch it up. Then the painting is a little nerve wrecking because you want it even without drips. I also stenciled those stars on it because the Relay For Life is symbolized with a moon and sun and sometimes stars. We had setbacks galore when I stenciled too early and caused the purple paint to bubble up, and the base of the potty broke last week when we set it on our lawn so we had to epoxy that back together. My husband then had the brilliant idea to mount it to the board to prevent breakage again (have I mentioned that he rocks?). Then of course we had to repaint it and the board, and let it thoroughly dry before taking it out and FLUSH people.

I arrived at the Sheriff's Department with my 11 month old Frank in the Ergo Baby, holding the hand of 2 1/2 year old Squishy, my camera strap slung over one shoulder and a binder full of information in my other hand. I was prepared for anything! I went at a luckily slow time of day, and I was met by "Vall" who was *NOT* happy to see me. She told me that they put my Purple Potty in the trash (more mental freaking out, just not so mild this time!!!) and that the potty had been used "before 9am". OK, fine, I will deal with that as long as my potty is still whole, I will figure it out. I inquired about why I never received a phone call, she told me "they were supposed to call you." I then went ahead and politely talked about Relay and asked if she would put up a flier or two in the back and invite any Cancer Survivors she knows to our Social next Friday.

I loaded the girls up in the Jeep and I backed up to the dumpster area in the parking lot. And this is what I found:

A huge part of me was so thankful to see it still whole! Another part was apprehensive about looking inside, but all I found was the same spider and web that has been hanging out in there for a couple of days. Nobody urinated in my potty and then I started to feel outraged. Why would she lie to me? Why would they be such Potty Poopers? Why would they "throw away" my potty? Are they really unable to call a person about their personal property? As you can see I left a sign on my potty, and the sign has my cell phone number and e-mail address. Now I know that the San Diego Sheriff's Department will dump on fundraisers.

My lovely neighbor was happy to host my Purple Potty after I picked it up from the Sheriff's Department. I am heading over there in a few to see if they have picked a place to send it to next :) I wish you all a lovely evening.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Sunday was the Avocado Festival and I ate 2 orders of guacamole with chips = corn
Monday I shared a box of mac n cheese and a quesadilla with Squishy = wheat and corn

I have lost 5 pounds in the last week eating only those grains. I am very pleased but I also kind of feel like I cheated.

I have been great about getting at least 2-3 miles of walking in each day for the past few days. The kidlets seem to enjoy it, and I know the sunshine and exercise are never a bad combination for me and my mental health. We are going to head out on foot today to drum up a few more donations for Relay For Life you can click on that link and donate directly to my team! Don't you love technological advances?

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

I am a 20 year Melanoma survivor. My mom is a survivor, my grandma, my great grandma, and many of my friends are survivors or were survivors. I have been involved in the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life for 13 years this summer.

This year I am on my local Relay For Life committee gathering corporate sponsorship from my community. I am running around with my two girls and trying to recruit teams, gather donations of items for swag bags and raffles. I am enjoying walking into businesses that I normally would not and speaking to new people. My hope is that this will raise more community awareness and involvement in our event. Today I met many new people, including Dan at Martial Art Concepts, who generously donated 50 coupons for 1 free month of training for the whole family to place in our swag bags. His business also is working on a fundraiser for a sweet little girl Hailey and you can visit her web page and learn more about her at HealingHailey.com.

I am so glad that I volunteered this year. Each day I get to go out into the community and talk to my neighbors. I love hearing the heartwarming stories, and watching people get excited and involved in this amazing event. If you have a chance to join a Relay For Life in your community I urge you to.

Relay For Life is a 24 hour team relay event to raise funds to fight cancer and raise awareness of cancer in your community. It’s
also a 24-hour celebration of life honoring cancer survivors. While the Relay
is going on, a community party atmosphere emerges through team members camping
out, entertainment, food, games, and camaraderie.